The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-15

to get gray hairs upon his head, thrust
/ him aside; he is not to be considered.
! The unripe youngster shall contradict
him. aud give us his own opinion in
stead. Parents, teachers and rulers do
not escape. The vulgar epithets that
so often take the place of the terms
father and mother" bear witness to
waning respect. When we lose respect
foT old age, for just authority, for all
that centers in the home, the school,
the State, social decentralization is not
far in the future.
Without becoming worshipers of the
past, it is safe to say that an experience
of six thousand years has settled some
things as against the hippant upstart
of yesterday. The past has its lessons,
and we shall do well to heed them.
The opinions and advice of the aged
are not always correct; but men whose
hairs are whittier than ours are not to be
| treated as if they were necessarily fools
or imbeciles. Parents may make mis-
takes, but they are still to be honored.
| The mandate of Sinai has not been alb
rogated,
Consider the attitude of irreverence
toward all that is noble in art and lit
erature and history. There is not
great picture around which ludicrous
associations have not been grouped.
There is not popular poem that has
| not been parodied until we are sick of
the original. There is not revered
character of history who has not been
burlesqued until we are no longer sure
of his identity. Everything majestic
and ennobling is degraded. The Raven,
in which the weird genius of Poe found
its highest expression, has been smirch-
ed and bedraggled. Some of Tenny-
sons sweetest poems have been pub
lished with absurd caricatures. The
author from whom the title is quoted
suggests that Shakespeare will be known
to the coming generation through bur
lesques and his plays will find new life
as pantomimes. "a bottle-nosed Lear
will come on with a monstrous corpu-
lence from which he will frantically
dance himself free during the midnight
storm; Rosalind and Celia will join
grotesque ballet with shepherds and
shepherdesses \ And all the speeches
in Hamlet will be SO ingeniously paro-
died, that the original will be reduced
to mere naenl0rid tecbnicd Of the i'm
pTovisor's puns,-premonitory signs of
a hideous millennium, in which the
lion will have to lie down with the las
civious monkeys whom, if we may
trust Pliny, his soul naturally abhors."
More serious, indeed, is the havoc
irreverence has wrought in the sphere
of religion, reducing othe merest triv-
ialities the mightiest subjects that can
engage our thought OF win our affection.
Sacred things and solemn subjects are
spoken of with quip and banter. Pas
sages from the old Book which have
been light and guidance to multitudes,
which have brought strength to the
tempted, certainty to the doubling, and
consolation to the bereayed; which have
been bread Of life to those who have
hungered for righteousness, inspira-
tion to the purposeless, and help to the
needy have been turned into sources
of merriment to fTeshen exhausted wit
and season the insipid discourse of stu
pidity OF course | do not allude to
the legitimate work of criticism, which
has III these later years produced Won
derful results and given us better un
derstanding Of the Bible. What subject
is more solemn than death, whose ray
less mystery cOnfrOnts US, whose shad-
ow is forever upon our pathway What
subject is more lippantly treated?
With what cold -blOOded recklessness
does the Jester capeT about this theme?
Around many of the forms of religion
and worship sacred associations cluster
that should not be needlessly disturbed,
The entire sphere of religion should be
free from invasion by an army Of clowns.
Let the religious instincts and senti-
ments-those powers and aspirations
that take hold on God, on duty, on
truth, and immortality, be preserved
from the blight and mildew of irrever-
ence.
Nature will instruct us; our great
mother will be our teacher. Go out
some day from the sitting crowds, from
the babble of men. Take a quiet day
in the woods OF on the lake alone, and
nature will restore you to your simple,
uncOTupted self, and shame your iibing
spirit. What an atmosphere Of reyer-
ence How calm and still, as if every
thing paused in awe of some unseen,
but not unfelt presence and power
How majestic the trees, how dignided
the waters, what humility in the bushes
and blossoms There is levity no
where, no jarTing word, no ribaId jest.
Your mood becomes one with the scene.
A feeling steals over you that there is
more than your own eye can see and
your hand handle The God of lake
and forest is bringing your own heart
into sympathy with the reverent spirit
that breathes about you. Says Emer-